Fibrous products



Patented Apr. 5, 1938 'Nirap ATENT @FFICE tery, Hamilton, Ohio, assignors to The Philip Garey Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Uhio No Drawing. Application April 3, 1938, Serial No. 664,211

17 Claims.

This invention relates to fibrous products of improved character, quality and texture, and particularly pertains to felted sheet materials such as are used in the manufacture of roofing products, felt base floor coverings, heat insulating materials and other kindred felt products.

The invention consists in the features, combinations and compositions hereinafter described or claimed for carrying out the above stated object and such other objects as will hereinafter appear.

Raw stock felt paper manufacture usually consists of a variety of fibrous textile stocks, such as waste rags, consisting of wool, part wool and.

' cotton, cotton, waste paper of various kinds,

burlap, hair, rope and many other kinds of vegetable and/or animal fibrous stock. Heretofore this heterogeneous raw stock has been pulped by being mixed with water and subjected to a series of reducing operations, such as cutters and beaters, and the like. In order to reduce the raw stock to suitable condition, it has been the usual practice to subject it to a series of cutters and then feed it to a series of heaters where it was mixed with water and treated in the heaters until thoroughly saturated and has the knots removed. The knots consist in part, of portions of the textile stocks that have been sewn to-- gether in double or more thicknesses, small tangles of string, and the like.

Thereafter the stock with its water content was fed to a series of finishing beaters, where the beating treatment is repeated. The repeated beating-treatment is carried on until all the knots have been removed from the stock and same is suitable for being felted. In the preparation of the stock, there are a more or less number of knots which are tenacious and stubborn in being disintegrated, requiring extended and prolonged treatment in the beaters. However, inasmuch as it is not feasible to separate the knotted portion of the stock from the unknotted portion, the entire batch must be subjected to the heaters until all of it is conditioned. Accordingly, it results that the unknotted portion of stock must undergo extended and prolonged treatment which, of course, involves increased time, labor and expenditure. Moreover this extended and prolonged treatment breaks up the individual fibers and reduces the length of same to a finer degree than is desired, thus producing in the finished product a felted material which is dense and rigid in character and is of low tensile strength.

It is the aim of the present invention to produce a felted product having relatively long fibers, and is more porous, more pliable and flexible, and of relatively high tensile strength. We have found that a noveland improved felted sheet having the improved characteristics may be obtained by subjecting the stock to the action of the rods in a rod mill. A rod mill comprises a container or casing in which numerous elongated relatively heavy rods, preferably of varying diameter, are adapted to be tumbled or cascadedby revolving the container or casing. The stock in our invention is cut and mixed with water in a beater, to thoroughly saturate same. Thereafter the excess water if any may be drawn off, leaving the stock in a moistened condition,

in which condition it is treated in the rod mill.

The rod mill rapidly draws out the stock and removes the knots. This is accomplished without cutting the fibers by the rubbing and/or pulling of the stock. The elongated rods in close contact in the rod mill between which the stock is rolled, rubbed, pulled or tumbled draws the fibers out of the stock and into relatively thin, elongated, independent fibers. When knots are present and pass between the rolls, they bear practically the full weight of the rods, which concentrates the action of the rods upon those portions of the stock which are knotted and little, if any, upon the unknotted portions.

As the knots are removed the rods roll more uniformly, exerting uniform pressure upon the stock, but during the entire treatment in the rod mill the rods exert greater force against the knots than against the unknotted portion of stock, and there is not the chance of the unknotted por- 85 tions of the stock being reduced to too fine a condition.

Felt sheets made from stock prepared in this manner are especially adapted for use in roofing products, felt backed floor coverings which are saturated with a waterproofing material, such as bituminous compositions. The fibers being relatively long and more uniform in size and character there is in,the felted sheet produced interstices between the fibers which are more uniform in size and character, thereby giving greater heat insulating and sound absorption qualities to the sheet if used as a sound deadening felt or insulating paper, or giving greater capacity for absorption of a saturating waterproofing medium. 5

While we have described our invention in. regard to details of the construction of the felted sheet and the treatment of the stock comprising the sheet, it will be understood that the description is by way of exempliflcation and not of limii515v tation, the scope of the invention being defined and limited only by .the appended claims.

What we claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. A felted sheet product comprising textile fibers felted into a sheet having relatively high tensile strength resulting from preparing the pulp from which the sheet is formed by separating a majority of the'fibrous stock into individual fibers of substantially uniform size and character without reducing the length of the fibers.

2. A felted sheet comprising textile fibers felted to form suitable sheet of high porosity, said sheet characterized by substantially all of the fibers having the characteristics of individual fibers of substantially uniform size and character separated from other fibers without reducingthe length of the fiber.

3. A felted sheet comprising textile fibrous stock which has been divided into relatively independent fibers and felted together, a majority of the said fibers being of substantially uniform size and character, not reduced in length and having the characteristics of fibers that have been treated by a rolling process as distinguished from fibers treated by a beater process, whereby the felted sheet is given a relatively higher porosity and tensile strength.

-4. A felted sheet product comprising textile fibers felted into a sheet having relatively high porosity and tensile strength resulting from preparing the pulp from which the sheet is formed by separating a majority of the fibrous stock into individual fibers of substantially uniform size and character without reducing the length of the fibers, said sheet saturated with a waterproofing composition.

5. A highly porous felted sheet comprising textile fibers that have been separated into individual elements of substantially uniform size and character and mixed with other ingredients to form a felting pulp in which substantially allof the fibers of the fiber content are unbroken.

6. A felted sheet comprising textile fibers that have been separated into individual elements of substantially uniform size and character and mixed with other ingredients to form a felting pulp in which substantially all of the fibers of the fiber content are unbroken, said sheet saturated with a waterproofing composition.

7. A felted sheet comprising textile individual fibers felted together to form a sheet having relatively high porosity resulting from the separation of a majority of the fibers into independent elements of substantially uniform size and character without reducing the length of the fibers, said sheet saturated with suitable waterproofing mate- 8. A felted sheet comprising rag pulp stock felted into a sheet having relatively high porosity resulting from pulping a majority of this stock composing the sheet into individual fibers of substantially uniform size and character without reducing the length of the fibers.

9. A felted' sheet comprising rag pulp stock which has been divided into relatively independent fibers and felted together, a majority of said fibers being of substantially uniform size and character, not reduced in length and having the characteristics of rag fibers that have been treated by a rolling process as distinguished from fibers treated by a beater process.

10. A fel sheet comprising rag pulp stock which has been divided into relatively independrolling rag scrap material in the presence of a fiuid between a series of loose rollers for separating the fibers of the rag scrap material to reduce said material to a pulp in which a majority of the fibers are not reduced in length and are substantially uniform in size and character, felting the pulp into a highly porous sheet and impregnating the sheet with waterproofing material.

12. A method of fabricating felt comprising subjecting rag scrap material to a beating operation, rolling the beaten material in the presence of a fluid between a series of loose rollers for separating the fibers apart piece by piece to reduce said material to a pulp in which a majority of the fibers are not reduced in length and are substantially uniform in size and character, felting the pulp into a highly porous sheet, and impregnating the sheet with waterproofing material.

13. A method of fabricating felt comprising cutting rag scrap material into relatively small pieces, subjecting the cut pieces to a beating 5 operation, rolling the beaten material in the presence of a fiuid between a series of loose rollers for felted to form suitable sheet of high porosity, said sheet characterized bysubstantially all of the fibers having .the characteristics of individual fibers of substantially uniform size and character which are separated, in their preparation for being felted into the sheet, from other fibers with-v out reducing the length of the fibers.

15. A felted sheet composed of textile pulp stock having the characteristics of flexibility, uniformity in character, and high porosity resulting from refining of the pulp by. passing same between a plurality of members rolling over and in contact with each other.

16. A waterproofed felted sheet composed of textile pulp stock having the characteristics of flexibility, uniformity in character, and high porosity resulting from refining of the pulp by passing same between a plurality of members rolling over and in contact with each other and waterproofing material impregnating the sheet.

1'7. A feltable textile pulp stock having the characteristics of flexibility and uniformity in character resulting from refining of the pulp by passing same between a plurality of members rolling over and in contact with each other.

WILLIAM A. SLATTERY.

HENRY A. ELLIS. 

